Exploration, Contact, and Conquest

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Exploration, Contact, and Conquest

• Teaching America History 2007, Lecture 1

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Objectives of Todays Lesson

• Broad overview of Native American societies on
  the eve of contact
• Survey age of exploration, examine reasons for
  European dominance, and identify key explorers
  and conquistadors
• Examine complex causes of Indian depopulation and
  decline

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Part I Pre-Columbian America
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Origins of North American Indians

• Asian nomads, began migration about 30,000 years
  ago via Beringia
• Fanned out across two continents over span of
  20,000 years
• Glaciers retreated 9,500 years ago, isolating
  Americans from Old World

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Pre-Columbian American Societies

• Difficult to generalize, but typical Indian
  communities . . .
• Practiced horticulture supplemented by hunting
• Lived in relatively small, autonomous villages
• Simple, egalitarian social organization
• Relatively simple religious systems
• Yet there were some major exceptions

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Southwestern Indians Anasazi/Pueblos

• Adobe and wood homes joined in multi-story
  complexes
• Men farmed and made cloth, women made baskets
• By 1492, had moved from large urban centers to
  cliff dwellings and finally to modest villages
  and towns

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Mississippians

• Emerged in Mississippi valley in 9th century
• Followed development of bow and arrow, new
  strains of maize, flint hoes
• Mound-builders
• Developed fortified cities, local chiefdoms

• Cahokia
• 40,000 people, 100 ceremonial mounds
• Elaborate class divisions
• Declined ca. 1450 due to drought, war

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Summary America in 1492

• 7-15 million people north of Rio Grande
• Organized in towns and villages
• Mostly farming and hunting communities
• Some with elaborate social and religious systems,
  most simple
• Some aggressive and expansionistic or organized
  into confederations
• But no iron or bronze, no writing system, no
  wheel, no domesticated draft or food animals, and
  little resistance to Old World diseases

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Part II The Age of Exploration
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Explaining European Dominance

• Why did Europeans emerge as the dominant world
  power after 1492?
• Militarily, Ottoman Empire was superior
• Technologically, the Chinese had an edge
• But Europe had the right combination of
  advantages by the 16th century

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Explaining European Dominance

• Expansionist Religion
• Enjoyed state support and protection
• Strong missionary impulse for cultural expansion
• Christianity a driving force behind colonization

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Explaining European Dominance

• Technology
• Borrowed and improved upon Chinese and Muslim
  technology
• China contributed movable type, gunpowder, the
  compass
• Muslims contributed checks and the lateen sail
• Refined sailing technology in fifteenth century

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Explaining European Dominance

• Merchant Class
• Class structure nobility, priesthood, peasantry
• And commercial middle class growing rich from
  Mediterranean trade
• Wed passion for trade to maritime economy and
  technology

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Explaining European Dominance

• Political centralization
• Still fragmented politically in 1450
• But emergence of strong centralized monarchical
  states in Spain, France, and England by 1500
• And states supported ambitions of merchants and
  missionaries

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Into the Atlantic

• Name that explorer!
• Navigator who never navigated
• Portuguese prince who supported exploration of
  West African coast

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Into the Atlantic

• _____________________ (1394-1460)
• Sponsored voyages in search of African gold,
  trade, and Christian ally against the Muslims
• Series of voyages familiarized sailors with
  Atlantic waters, winds, seafaring

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Into the Atlantic

• Name that explorer!
• Portuguese mariner who first breeched southern
  tip of Africa
• Discovered southern westerly winds and route to
  Indian Ocean

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Into the Atlantic

• __________________
• Applied volta technique, first developed in
  Canaries, to southern Atlantic
• Columbus would use same technique for return
  voyage in 1492

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Into the Atlantic
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Into the Atlantic

• Christopher Columbus
• Italian sailor living in Portugal, sailing for
  Spain
• Hoped to find western route to Asian spice
  markets
• Landfall in Hispaniola, October 1492
• Three future voyages became plundering and
  slaving expeditions

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The Conquistadors

• Background Spaniards, Christians, and
  Adventurers
• Spanish kingdoms unite
• Aragon faced Mediterranean, centered on trade and
  banking, strong merchant class
• Castile more pastoral and medieval, ruled by
  aristocratic warrior class
• United with marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella in
  1469

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The Conquistadors

• Hidalgo
• Masculine ideal in Castilian culture
• Adventurer, seeking honor through martial glory,
  riches through conquest
• Not medieval carry-over, but product of
  Reconquest
• Going on since Muslim conquest of portions of
  Spain in tenth century
• Last Muslims driven from Grenada in 1492
• Conditioned Castilians to warfare, conquest,
  violence, and religious and racial hatred
• Conquest of Americas an extension of reconquista
  to New World

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The Conquistadors

• Name that explorer!
• Vilified in 1975 Neil Young song
• Founded city of Vera Cruz
• Landed on Mexican Coast in 1519 with 600 men,
  horses, guns
• Allied with outlying enemies of Aztec
• Capitalized on Aztec fatalism, vulnerability to
  germs
• Captured Tenochtitlan 1521, conquered Aztec empire

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The Conquistadors

• ____________________
• Landed on Mexican Coast in 1519 with 600 men,
  horses, guns
• Allied with outlying enemies of Aztec
• Capitalized on Aztec fatalism, vulnerability to
  germs
• Captured Tenochtitlan 1521, conquered Aztec
  empire

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The Conquistadors

• Name that explorer!
• Veteran of Reconquest, sailed under Columbus
• Slaughtered Puerto Rican Tainos, 1508
• Best known for discovery of Florida, quest for
  fountain of youth
• Effort to conquer Florida ended in failure, death

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The Conquistadors

• __________________
• Best known for discovery of Florida, quest for
  fountain of youth
• Effort to conquer Florida ended in failure, death

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The Conquistadors

• Name that explorer!
• Treasurer for the disastrous Narvaez expedition
  to Florida, 1528
• He and three others only survivors
• Wandered eight years through south Texas, New
  Mexico, Arizona
• Discovered by Spanish slave raiders, 1536
• Later opposed mistreatment of Indians

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The Conquistadors

• ___________________
• Wandered eight years through south Texas, New
  Mexico, Arizona
• Discovered by Spanish slave raiders, 1536
• Later opposed mistreatment of Indians

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The Conquistadors

• Name that explorer!
• Veteran of Mexican and Peruvian conquests
• Led 1540 expedition through present-day
  southeastern U.S., searching for gold
• Killed, enslaved, and infected Indians along his
  route

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The Conquistadors

• ___________________
• Led 1540 expedition through present-day
  southeastern U.S., searching for gold
• Killed, enslaved, and infected Indians along his
  route

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The Conquistadors

• Name that explorer!
• Traversed present-day southwestern U.S. in search
  of El Cibola
• Generally treated natives with kindness, though
  he dealt harshly with Zuni Pueblo who resisted
  his demands
• Traveled as far north as Kansas, as far west as
  California border
• Left horses and germs in his wake

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The Conquistadors

• ____________________
• Generally treated natives with kindness, though
  he dealt harshly with Zuni Pueblo who resisted
  his demands
• Traveled as far north as Kansas, as far west as
  California border
• Left horses and germs in his wake

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English and French Exploration

• Name that explorer!
• Genoese pilot living in England
• Commissioned by Henry VII to search for Northwest
  Passage to Asia
• Successful voyage to Newfoundland
• But vanished along with fleet on second voyage
• _______________

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English and French Exploration

• Name that explorer!
• First French captain to explore New World
• Made three voyages to Canada, 1534-1542, seeking
  Northwest Passage
• Traded extensively with Hurons and other Canadian
  Indians
• __________________